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Re: My DIY Joule Thief Hurricane Lamp Project: Lots of pics!

For those of you that want to experiment with the ZXLD381, here's a way to put it on your breadboard:

First, get some breakaway header pins. These could be desoldered from an old computer motherboard (IDE/floppy connectors, USB headers, etc). Stick the long ends in your breadboard like this:[X] [ ] [ ]
[ ] [X] [X]

Cut a 2x3 grid of copper-ring perfboard and lay it over your header pins, ring side up:

Lay down the ZXLD381. The ground pin should be touching the top middle contact; the Vin and Vout pins should be touching the bottom middle and bottom right contacts. I used a little rosin flux on the SMT pins to ensure good contact:

Apply heat to the copper rings and feed in solder until things ball up. Deliberately create a solder bridge from the top middle contact (where the ZXLD ground pin is) to the top left contact (where the header pin is):

Now you can unplug and plug that teeny tiny SMT chip anywhere on your breadboard you like, because now it's a through-hole component!

Re: My DIY Joule Thief Hurricane Lamp Project: Lots of pics!

I know tables here loose all formating, but here is the Power_in vs. Power_out (and efficiency as Pin/Pout) that I got as I went from Vin of 0.8 volts up to 3.5 volts (where I was pretty much getting to a direct drive condition):

Re: My DIY Joule Thief Hurricane Lamp Project: Lots of pics!

Originally Posted by Darvis

Will, what can I say? Thanks for the great info!!!

You are welcome

Originally Posted by Darvis

That circuit you built up looks very cool, did you make the board yourself?

Yes, I worked from the Data Sheet, made my own schematic on Eagle CAD, did my own layout, ordered my own boards, the regulator, discrete parts, and soldered all of the parts myself. It is very time consuming to do all of it, but it is also fun stuff to do

I have plenty of boards left, and I am willing to sell them if there is enough interest - either the bare board (you buy/solder everything on your own), or I can provide a completely finished board, ready to use. If you or anyone is interested, please send me email (in my signature).

Re: My DIY Joule Thief Hurricane Lamp Project: Lots of pics!

Originally Posted by tylernt

For those of you that want to experiment with the ZXLD381, here's a way to put it on your breadboard:

First, get some breakaway header pins. These could be desoldered from an old computer motherboard (IDE/floppy connectors, USB headers, etc). Stick the long ends in your breadboard like this:[X] [ ] [ ]
[ ] [X] [X]

Cut a 2x3 grid of copper-ring perfboard and lay it over your header pins, ring side up:

Lay down the ZXLD381. The ground pin should be touching the top middle contact; the Vin and Vout pins should be touching the bottom middle and bottom right contacts. I used a little rosin flux on the SMT pins to ensure good contact:

Apply heat to the copper rings and feed in solder until things ball up. Deliberately create a solder bridge from the top middle contact (where the ZXLD ground pin is) to the top left contact (where the header pin is):

Now you can unplug and plug that teeny tiny SMT chip anywhere on your breadboard you like, because now it's a through-hole component!

Re: My DIY Joule Thief Hurricane Lamp Project: Lots of pics!

The post you quoted is 6 years old, and the poster hasn't logged in to CPF in more than a year ....

Originally Posted by nein166

Aw I thought there was some action on this old thread. Just another Necro... Google that one kids😁

Sorry to dig up an old thread. I did google extensively on LED, Joule Thief, vampires, SMD, etc and found this & other post. Unfortunately, most of the image hosting link are no longer valid. Hence, my attempt to contact the poster about the smart way of doing some SMD.

Re: My DIY Joule Thief Hurricane Lamp Project: Lots of pics!

"Google allows public anonymous access to images if you use absolute address of the image. One simple way to find absolute path of an image (in Google Chrome) is to right click on the image and choose "Open Image in New Tab", then you can see the absolute path of the image in the address bar of newly opened tab. You can use this address in img tags. But remember, to be able to open an image in a new tab (I'm absolutely talking about this simple method) you should not use the "Zoom" feature of Google+ photos, otherwise you have to find the absolute path of image another way (by inspecting the element containing the image in the developer panel and finding the path)"